1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to aircraft gateways, and more particularly to a wireless aircraft gateway with auxiliary battery power.
2. Description of the Related Art
Commercial aircraft which transport passengers will have aircraft cabin systems which are used to electronically automate various crew and passenger functions in the cabin. Examples of typical cabin system features include: passenger address announcement capability, cabin lighting control, individual passenger lighting control, shade control, climate control and monitoring, waste water control and monitoring. On a small aircraft, such as a business jet, the passenger entertainment functions such as entertainment audio and video are also controlled through the cabin system. To service the cabin system electronics, it is important for maintenance personnel to have maintenance (diagnostic) data to verify the system is operating properly. If this maintenance data can be offloaded to the ground, the maintenance process can be improved through the use of additional analysis tools and technical experts that yield reduced failure diagnosis times and more accurate diagnosis of failures. Unfortunately cabin system maintenance data is not being off-loaded on a consistent basis to enable rapid response for resolving aircraft cabin system maintenance issues. Cabin system maintenance data includes BIT/BITE data, software event log data, and aircraft configuration data. Having such data on the ground enables maintenance personnel to more rapidly troubleshoot and identify aircraft cabin system problems remotely from the aircraft. (Built in Test (BIT) or Built in Test Equipment (BITE) refer to hardware electronics and software that is used to automatically diagnose electronic failures). Impediments to offloading a complete set of maintenance data include requiring human action to perform the data offloads. This may result in inconsistent data gathering and increased costs. Also, aircraft electronics may be powered down shortly after the aircraft arrives at the gate. This is especially true for business jets. Existing aircraft data offload methods are inconsistently gathered, expensive to acquire, and only operate while the aircraft is powered with limited time for data transfers or access. Data offloads are neither automated nor performed consistently. Additionally cabin system data, such as software, databases, and content, needs to be periodically loaded on the ground. Manual electronic media data loading methods typically utilize maintenance personnel servicing the aircraft that must hand carrying the electronic data file on an electronic media to the aircraft and then load it on aircraft while the aircraft has power applied. This data load task must be completed in a limited time window before takeoff while power is available. Impediments to loading data to aircraft include having maintenance personnel available for the task. Aircraft cabin system electronics may not have power available for a significant amount of time prior to flight. This is especially true for business jets. The limited time power is available prior to the scheduled aircraft flight makes it difficult to load large data files to aircraft using a gateway. Existing aircraft gateway devices typically only service avionics or inflight entertainment electronics and do not service the cabin system electronics. Furthermore, they do not have auxiliary battery power to provide power for off aircraft wireless communications when aircraft power is unavailable, thus complicating the logistics of automating data transfers.
There are numerous patents that have issued that have involved wireless methods for delivery of data to an aircraft. These include:
U.S. Pat. No. 6,741,841, entitled “Dual Receiver for an On-Board Entertainment System” discloses a communication system for use with a mobile platform. The communication system can be configured to store video data on-board to allow pseudo-live or live broadcasts to be played as the mobile platform traverses a number of broadcasts regions. The mobile platforms can be automobiles, aircraft, boats, ships, trains, or other vehicles. The communication system allows Internet access, movies, and other entertainment and business functions to be performed.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,546,123, entitled “Wireless Ground Link-Based Aircraft Data Communication System with Roaming Feature” discloses a data communication system for use between an aircraft and a ground station.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,810,527, entitled “System and Method for Distribution of Media Context and Other Data to Aircraft Passengers,” discloses a data communication system for sending content data to the aircraft wirelessly from a ground station.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,741,841, 7,546,123 and 6,810,527 each disclose use of an aircraft communication platform for loading and offloading aircraft data; but, do not address the need to provide operation after aircraft power is turned off. Such systems would not be advantageous in a business jet environment where aircraft power is typically turned off immediately upon arrival and remains unpowered until the next flight. Requiring power to aircraft for gateway data transfers creates a logistical problem in using the gateway in a business jet. These solutions are more suited for an air transport jet type of application where power can be continuously available to the aircraft in the air or on the ground.
There is a need for an onboard gateway to operate on the ground when aircraft power is turned off, particularly in a business aircraft environment where power is removed shortly after landing and is restored only shortly prior to the next flight. Furthermore, the onboard gateway electronics also needs the ability to continue offloading data to the ground server when aircraft power is turned off or interrupted during the data exchange. As part of the data exchange process, there is a need to resume data transmission or reception with the ground server such that an interrupted data transmission can be resumed from where it was previously interrupted. There is a need to operate in an environment where these interruptions could be from a few seconds to hours in length. This would result in saving valuable time and transmission costs associated with restarting the data transmission from the beginning, especially for the exchange of large files. Such a situation can arise when the data link connection is interrupted and then resumed.
There is an additional need to exchange data between the ground server and the aircraft without human involvement. This allows critical data to be available on the aircraft when personnel power up the aircraft. As a result, there is a need for the onboard gateway electronics to periodically wake up and check for new data to be loaded to the aircraft when aircraft power is not available.
To support un-manned data exchanges, there is a need for the gateway electronics to receive and store data until the data can be forwarded to the intended onboard aircraft system once power to aircraft is restored. There is an additional need for a gateway to accept data from an aircraft system and store it until a communication channel to the ground server is available or allowed at which time the gateway would forward the stored data to the ground server.